Multi-family landlords feel tax burden

Landlords of multi-family apartment buildings say they are victims of the city’s poor system for property valuation, the New York Observer reported. While co-ops and condos pay approximately $10 to $12 per square foot in taxes, landlords of rental buildings pay more than $20 per square foot to the city.

Some landlords say the city officials’ reluctance to raise taxes on condo and single-family homeowners may be politically motivated: “If you started raising taxes on co-op and single-family homes there would be tremendous political repercussions,” one residential landlord said. “So instead, the city puts it unfairly on rental buildings where tenants don’t know what the taxes are. It’s gotten to the point where taxes account for 30 percent of rent.”

At the Upper West Side’s Dakota co-op, for example, residents reap the benefits of a low property assessment by the city, which valued the building at just $65 million. Industry sources said the building is worth almost ten times more. [NYO] – Katherine Clarke